Memphis Zoo lures more than 600 pros from across U.S. to conference

Photos by Karen Pulfer Focht/The Commercial Appeal
A giraffe greets Sarah Sullivan (left) and Gina Velosky Tuesday at the Memphis Zoo. The two are attending the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Mid-Year Meeting. The organization represents more than 200 zoos and promotes conservation, education and animal care.

The Commercial Appeal

There was a lesson in breeding techniques for the Mississippi gopher frog, an endangered species that needs zoos’ help to survive.

The Commercial Appeal

With great care Ann Duncan, chief veterinarian at the Detroit Zoo, attempted on Tuesday to perfect a breeding technique for the Mississippi gopher frog.

Guided by Andy Kouba, director of conservation and research at the Memphis Zoo, Duncan was learning a procedure that was perfected in Memphis to save a species that has seen its habitat shrink and needs the help of zoos to survive.

"We were successful. I learned how to do it," said Duncan, whose zoo also has the same species of frogs.

"What we're excited about is showing some of the behind-the-scenes research and conservation work that we don't always get an opportunity to share with the public or even our peers," Kouba said.

This midyear meeting has set an attendance record, said Matt Thompson, director of animal programs in Memphis.

There are more than 200 zoos in the AZA, an organization that promotes conservation, education and animal care.

Conference attendees will attend workshops on topics that include exhibit trends and managing an animal escape.

The zoo professionals also had the chance to get ideas and see how the Memphis Zoo operates.

"It may make you a little nervous knowing they're looking at it with somewhat of a critical eye, but we think we've got a good product to show off," Thompson said.

So while an average zoo visitor is enthralled with the giraffes, Lanny Brown with the Nashville Zoo and Amy Phelps with the Oakland Zoo were more interested in the giraffe barn.

Zoos do things based on circumstances, from climate to topography to availability of land, said Brown, Nashville's curator of animals.

"When zoo professionals go to look at other zoos, you'd think you'd we'd go to look at animals. We don't. We go to look at facilities. That and to steal each other's ideas," Brown said.

Zoos share ideas, which drives the industry and elevates best practices, he said.

"We'll ask about rubber floors and hay feeders and what access they have when," Phelps said. "We're funny like that. We want to know how everybody else does the same thing we do."

It was a view zoo staffers may not get at their own facilities, said Alexis Wilson, director of communications with the Fort Worth Zoo.

"We don't always do that at home," Wilson said. "Our daily operations, the things that are required of our job, keep us moving so quickly that we sometimes probably don't take the time we should to stop and see how things are operating behind the scenes."